Gladiator II has been making headlines as part of its run through the 2024 movie schedule, and not all of them are pleasant. Case in point: a recent story involved cinematographer John Mathieson apparently calling director Ridley Scott “lazy” and accusing him of rushing the recent films of his output. However, it turns out those comments were actually a bit of a misrepresentation that came out of a 30 minute edit from a two-hour interview; and the legacy-quel’s DP has come out to clarify just what happened.
Following the initial debacle, Deadline spoke with John Matheison in their own follow-up to Nigel Levy’s interview for The DocFix Documentary Storytelling Podcast. After the media firestorm centered around these supposed shots taken, both subject and host clarified how this misunderstanding came to be. Here’s what Matheison had to say:
The piece was about me. I was talking about the downside of the digital age. We have to do more. We have to get more shots, we have to shoot more every day, and we have to light and think of many cameras at the same time. And I said, you ask any DP that they don’t really like doing that. And we talked about that and I said that people just come in the morning, switch the coffee machine on, switch the cameras on, say, what are we doing? Because the digital stuff doesn’t cost anything, but so you shoot a lot. And I saying that is that, and I said, this was the quote. I said, the industry, it’s really lazy.
On that same token, Nigel Levy backed up the assertion that he and the veteran cinematographer discussed various facets of filmmaking. Levy also explained that his team tried to edit the two-hour chat down to 30 minutes by focusing on what they believed their viewers might find most interesting.
Upon listening to his episode on the podcast in question, John Mathieson noticed the severe truncation of the talk he’d given to Nigel Levy. Gladiator II’s DP even noted that he could tell that it felt like quotes were rearranged and deleted that would have filled out the sentiment he’d expressed above.
Which turned his upset with the industry into something that sounded like it was aimed at the same director Denzel Washington thinks is owed an Academy Award. And quotes like that are naturally going to light up the mediasphere with the right reporting. Much like thoughts on Gladiator II's ending, this more severe instance is something everyone is bound to talk about.
The Gladiator II filmmaker has been able to land that sort of coverage with his own words, as seen with Ridley Scott’s controversial casting comments connected to Exodus: Gods and Kings. Of course, this actually was a case of a bad edit conveying the wrong message, and it ultimately led to John Mathieson calling Ridley Scott himself to explain the situation thusly:
I said, ‘Well this has happened,’ and he said, ‘Oh, God, what the fuck? He said you’ve got to be careful.’ I said, I Know. I’m really story you got dropped into this, it’s very embarrassing and very hurtful.
Misquotes happen from time to time. Just look at that time Benedict Cumberbatch’s reaction to CBS’s Elementary was totally taken the wrong way. What matters in a scenario like this is what sort of correction comes out of the fallout, and how the record is set straight. John Mathieson and Nigel Levy have now put their cards on the table, and we’ll see how the truth circulates through the same circuits that saw the lie catch fire.
Gladiator II is still doing combat in theaters, so you haven’t missed Sir Ridley Scott and John Mathieson’s work on recapturing the glory of Rome. However, if you’re looking to relive the days of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, switch on your Paramount+ subscription and watch the original Gladiator at your earliest convenience.
